Guidelines for authors
Requirement of ORIGINALITY: MASKANA only publishes original research articles and, in exceptional cases, bibliographic review articles. Before starting the review phase, every manuscript is submitted to a plagiarism control test. If the percentage of similarities exceeds the threshold of 5%, the Editor-in-Chief or the assigned Section Editor will proceed to reject the article with the respective notification to the authors.
A) INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CONTENT OF A MANUSCRIPT
Title: The title should express in 10 or 12 words all the content of the article. It must be written in a clear, exact and concise manner, and should draw the attention of the reader. Subtitles and abbreviations should be avoided. It is necessary to dispense with the use of words and structures that do not contribute to clearly inform about the content of the article, such as: "Preliminary report ...", "Observations about ...", "Study of ...", "Contribution to ..." , "Some interesting aspects about the knowledge of ...", etc. It is essential to note that for the article to be indexed properly, the role played by both the title and the keywords is really important. The title must be a label, but not a phrase.
Summary: Please limit the length of the summary to a maximum of 250 words. The summary should: (i) mention the main objectives and scope of the investigation (what was done, why was it done, and for whom was the article written?); (ii) describe the methods used in the investigation; (iii) summarize the results obtained; and (iv) mention the main conclusions derived from the investigation. The summaries are written, usually in the past tense, because it refers to the work already done.
Keywords: A keyword carries a special meaning, which characterizes the key elements of the article and allows linking it to similar scientific publications. The keywords help to find related topics in the network ("internet") and in the databases of scientific journals. Normally these should be carefully and well chosen and their number is limited between 3 and 7 words.
Introduction: The purpose of the introduction should be to provide sufficient background so that the reader can understand and evaluate the results of the study without having to consult previous publications on the subject. The following rules are applied to achieve a good introduction: (i) to first present, with all possible clarity, the nature and scope of the problem investigated; (ii) present a synthesis of the related literature to illustrate current knowledge and developments in the field of conducted research; and (iii) conclude with the formulation of specific hypotheses and / or objectives.
Materials and methods: Must contain accurate and sufficient information so that the reader can repeat the investigation if necessary. If the reviewer notifies to the editor of MASKANA that there are serious doubts that the experiments can be repeated, the document will be rejected immediately. The materials and methods section can be organized as follows: (i) the design of the experiment is described (e.g., randomized, controlled, cases and controls, clinical trial, prospective, etc.); (ii) the population on which the study has been made is described, describing the context of the sample and how it has been selected; (iii) the environment where the study has been done (e.g., hospital, primary care, school, etc.) is indicated; (iv) technical interventions, treatments (always using generic names), measurements, units, pilot tests, devices and technology, etc, are described; and (v) it indicates the statistical analyzes used and how the data has been worked with.
Results and discussions: In general, the presentation of the results is combined with the discussion, but the author(s) has the freedom to write it in a section additional to the "Results" section, provided that be well justified, particularly by the length of the discussion. In the "Results" part, the results of the research are reported in the format of tables, figures, maps and photographs. Authors should make a selection of tables, figures, maps and photographs that express a summary of the most relevant results of the study, which are fundamental to support the message of the authors and can be adequately explained in the text. The elaboration of this part of the manuscript must start with the design and elaboration of the tables and figures to be included in the article, after which the writing of the text is done according to them. It is recommended to write in third person past tense, avoiding repetitions and unnecessary information. Guidelines for the presentation of tables, figures, maps and photographs are presented in the section "Instructions for submitting an article".
The "Discussion" is the core of the manuscript and, often, many of the scientists read this section immediately after reading the summary. It is the part of the manuscript that is more difficult to write, elaborate and organize. This section tests the scientific strength of a researcher. The objective of this section is to interpret the data in relation to the original objectives and hypotheses and the current state of knowledge of the subject under study. The following suggestions may help in the writing of this section: (i) compare own results with those of other similar publications, which could identify strengths and / or methodological errors, etc; (ii) compare own conclusions with those of other authors who have worked on the same topic; and (iii) look for the answer to questions such as What is the novelty of the present investigation?, through which it is possible to identify certain types of conclusions and propose future research needs. Should be brought to light and comment clearly, instead of hiding, the anomalous results, giving them an explanation as consistent as possible or simply admitting that this is what has been found, although for the moment no feasible explanation is seen. Finally, write this section in the present ("these data indicate that"), because the findings of the work are already considered scientific evidence, but always, in the third person.
Conclusions: The essence of this section is a summary of the important conclusions and their implications in the area of research on which the article deals. Traditionally, the conclusions offer a description (summary) of the main objectives of the theoretical framework, the methodological rigor, the results, the use and impact of the results, the originality and the type of contribution, and future developments.
Acknowledgment: This section is for thanking in a courteous manner for the received help: scientific, writing and technical (equipment and other special materials) from any person or institution. In addition, this section also expresses recognition for external financial assistance (such as grants, contracts or scholarships) received both for the conduct of the investigation and for the preparation of the article. It must be brief.
Bibliography: Include in the bibliographic list only the references of the authors cited in the text. The number of references in the bibliography should be equal to the number of citations in the text. The citation style for MASKANA is APA 6th edition. We strongly recomend to use a bibliographic reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley. Examples of how to cite publications can be consulted in the articles published in the latest edition of Maskana or in the following link. When using the APA 6th. edition style, the references are placed alphabetically according to the authors' surnames. These are structured as follows: last names of the authors, the year of publication, the title of the publication, the name of the journal, volume, editorial or complementary information, as well as the range of pages where the consulted material is found . Electronic sources should be treated as printed material, with some additions: (i) if the name of the author is unknown, only the title is used; (ii) the date of download and (iii) the URL (electronic address of the portal where the information comes from) are part of the reference. Please make sure the link works to the date of preparation of the article!
Structure of manuscripts that do NOT include experimental data: In these cases the structure of the manuscript is reduced to: Summary, Keywords, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, one or more sections on the aspects for which the author (s) propose (n) the investigation, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Bibliography.
B) INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRESENTATION OF AN ARTICLE
- The articles are presented in WORD format.
- Page layout: A4 size, margins of 2.54 cm on all sides of the page, numbered pages.
- Manuscript length: maximum 10,000 words including all sections.
- Title: 10 to 12 words; written as a label, but not a phrase.
- List of authors (complete names) and affiliation address.
- e-mail address of the author for correspondence and of every co-author.
- ORCID number for author and co-authors.
- Summary: maximum 250 words, written as a paragraph. Include a Spanish version and an English version, also of the title and keywords.
- Keywords: no more than 6 words.
- Limit the subdivision of each section of the single-plant manuscript (1.1., 1.2., 1.3., 2.1, 2.2., Etc.).
- Type and size of font: Times New Roman, 11 points for the text and 10 points for the footnotes.
- Spacing between lines of text: 1.5 and simple in tables, appendices and bibliographical references. Enter a blank line between each section of the article, not between paragraphs. Activate in WORD the option of numbered each line on each page.
- Text: The manuscript consists of a sequence of paragraphs. A paragraph is more than a phrase. Normally, each paragraph contains a clear idea and consists of a group of sentences that offer information about the central idea of the paragraph. It is essential that there be logical coherence between the paragraphs depending on the subject of the section of the manuscript.
- Tables, figures, photographs and maps: Present only relevant results, that is, only those that are necessary to better understand the text. An article usually consists of text rather than illustrations. The total number of figures and tables must not exceed 10.
- Tables: The tables do not contain vertical lines. It is recommended to use the dot as a separator sign for decimals, and the use of a comma to mark thousands in numbers.
- Figures: Line drawings must have a resolution of at least 800 dpi, preferably 1200 dpi. The letters in the figures must be legible. If the graphics do not meet the required quality, the authors will be invited to send an Excel sheet with the data.
- Maps and photographs: Text in illustrations must be legible, and illustrations of high quality. The minimum resolution of illustrations is 300 dpi, and the preferable format is JPEG or TIFF. The illustrations are usually in black and white (half tone), and only in exceptional cases color images.
- The images in the program lists or program commands must be legible. They are presented as text in typewriter font or as an image.
- Subtitle of tables, figures and images: Each table, figure and image must be numbered and have a subtitle that must always be placed under the figures and images, in contrast to the title that belongs to a table that should always appear above the board. If the article contains tables or figures reproduced, the authors have the responsibility to indicate the source in the subtitle.
- The tables, figures, maps and images should be separated from the text, and be provided at the end of the manuscript in an orderly manner and the authors should specify in the text where the tables, figures and images should be introduced.
- Bibliography: The bibliography of an article are only the references presented by the authors cited in the text. The references are organized alphabetically with the first surname of the first author and in chronological order. If a publication has a digital object identifier (doi, from English "digital object identifier"), the respective DOI must be included in the reference.
- Examples of the bibliography:
Articles
Gersten R, Chard DJ, Jayanthi M, Baker SK, Morphy P, Flojo J (2009). Mathematics instruction for students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis of instructional components. Rev Educ Res 79:1202-1242
Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000). Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med 78(2):74-80, doi:10.1007/s001090000086
Books
Bereiter C, Engelman S (1966). Teaching disadvantaged children in the preschool. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 312 pp
Montgomery DC, Johnson LA, Gardiner JS (1990). Forecasting and time series analysis (2ª ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 367 pp
Book chapters
Geo-JaJa MA, Azaiki S (2010). Development and education challenges in the Niger Delta. In: Hui Xu, Lou, S., Xiu Lan Wan (Eds.). Studies in African Education. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, pp. 210-228
Huo L (2014) The Centennial Change from Imitation to Innovation: Early Childhood Education and Curriculum Reform in China. In: Huo, L., Neuman, S.B., Nanakida, A. (Eds.). Early childhood education in three cultures: China, Japan and the United States. Springer e-book packages, pp. 3-24, doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-44986-8
Congress papers
Gómez-Pérez A, Suárez-Figueroa MC (2009). Scenarios for building ontology networks within the NeOn methodology. In: Proc. of the 5th Int. Conf. on Knowledge Capture, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, pp. 183-184
Uryupina O, Plank B, Severyn A, Rotondi A, Moschitti A (2014). SenTube: A corpus for sentiment analysis on YouTube social media. In: Proc. of the 9th Conf. of Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’14), Reykjavik, Iceland, pp. 4244-4249
Documents, projects and thesis (bachelor / post degree)
Andrade P (2011). Estrategias metodológicas activas para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de la lectoescritura en niños/as con capacidades especiales distintas en la Escuela Manuela Cañizares de Cotacachi. Tesis de Postgrado, 137 pp. Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial, Quito, Ecuador. Disponible en: http://repositorio.ute.edu.ec/handle/123456789/10256
Skamarock W, Klemp JB, Dudhia J, Gill DO, Barker DM, Duda MG, Huang XY, Wang JG (2008). A description of the Advanced Research WRF Version 3, 125 pp. Descargada de: http://opensky.library.ucar.edu/collections/TECH-NOTE-000-000-000-855 el 20 de febrero de 2012
Internet sources
Cassinelli A, Chen WO (2009). CS224N Final Project Boost up! Sentiment categorization with machine learning techniques, 12 pp. Disponible en: http://nlp.stanford.edu/courses/ cs224n/2009/ fp/16.pdf
W3C (2009). Public-rdf-in-xhtml-tf. Descargado de: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdf-in-xhtml-tf/2009Aug/thread.html el 26 de octubre de 2014
C) ELECTRONIC ADDRESS TO WHICH THE MANUSCRIPT MUST BE SENT
Manuscripts must be sent through our website. See instructions in this link.
